is mithril yttrium silver?

TORn's Green Books presents the latest in an occasional series on the science of
Middle-earth. I actually learned a little something about metallurgy:

It so happens that there is a class of chemical compounds called “intermetallics.” Like alloys, intermetallics consist of two or more metals combined. Unlike alloys—and this is crucial—the metals are always fixed ratios, because intermetallics are true compounds, as opposed to mixtures. The intermetallic compound Ni₃Al, for example, is not an arbitrary mixture of nickel and aluminium, but a compound with a definite crystal structure in which there are always three nickel atoms for every one of aluminium. Intermetallics, like alloys, are products of technology rather than nature, but is it possible to think of mithril as a kind of naturally occurring intermetallic?

Maybe so. Read the rest here.